Category: Life Updates

Well 2019, you sure have not been dull I’ll give you that. I cannot believe that we are already half way through this year. I’ve made some good progress on some of my fiber arts related goals. I’m close to finishing up my first free cowl pattern that I hope to have released soon. I know soon is such a vague timeframe. I’ve written the pattern and putting the finishing touches on it. I just want to make sure the bind off instructions are clear and easy to follow and that I have all the necessary resources that a knitter might need to help.

My biggest project that I have been working on for well over a year, maybe almost two is my first sweater design. I’ve gotten one of the sleeves almost done and ready to start the cuff. I am so excited and proud of how this design is coming together. I still have a long long way to go to get this design ready. I still have to draft the pattern, grade it, and then a round or two of test knitting. Going into this I did not realize just how much effort that designers go through to publish those amazing sweater designs I had been knitting. I am determined to get this pattern out, I don’t know when, but it will be published.

In other news, it’s finally summer! YAY! Work is crazy busy, Alexis is in day camp for the summer that she is loving, and I got to break out the shorts and flip flops. It’s been a fairly rainy start to the summer, but that just means lot of knitting time.

What has everyone been up to? I hope you all are having a great start to your summers and finding time for lots of knitting.

I’m so excited that Spring is finally starting to show up here. My redbud trees are blooming out and are looking better than last year. Hopefully my dogwood will start blooming out soon too.

With the arrival of Spring comes the outdoor activities that tend to interrupt my knitting. For example, last weekend we had a family Jeep invasion down at Robber’s Cave. Did I take my knitting with me? Yes I did. Did I accomplish much knitting? No I did not. I also had envisioned finishing up a new pattern that I wanted to publish this week as well, but alas that also did not happen.

Also, a new adventure that we are taking on as a family that will slightly impact my knitting time (though it will no doubt create some amazing places you can knit photos) is kayaking. We bought three kayaks for our family and are looking forward to some fun adventures on the water. Also, if anyone has any recommendations for excellent dry bags for my knitting pass those along! My kayak has a “water proof” storage, but I don’t know how much I trust that.

Here is a picture of the kayaks for my daughter (orange) and myself (green) on top of the hubby’s Jeep.

I’m working this week and this weekend on finishing up the pattern for a new brioche cowl (very basic and beginner friendly) that I intend to release for free in my Ravelry shop, hopefully next week (fingers crossed). Keep an eye out for that.

Other items on my to do list for spring is to get my design studio cleaned out and cleaned up. I have some major decluttering and organizing ahead of me for that. Right now it looks like two tornados hit it! Once I get it organized I have a lot of ideas for decorating the walls to make it a really creative and inspiring place.

I have so many ideas and plans for my fiber arts passion, there is a lot of planning and work going on behind the scenes here. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me in the fiber arts world.

Right now I am tied up in brioche knitting. I am working on a hat and cowl set for my daughter, and I started a second colorful hat just because.

Keep an eye out for two free patterns to be released as soon as I can get the pattern writing wrapped up. I also have a sweater pattern that is in the middle of the design process and a tunic/tank design that is at the beginning of the design process. I’m super excited for these patterns and cannot wait to share them with you!

How in the world is it already the end of August?! I guess my New Years resolution to write at minimum one blog post to my site each month was not a success. Instead of looking back and going “What the heck Jess?!”, I am just going to start fresh and move forward. A lot has taken place in the first half of this year already, and things are not about to start slowing down.

A quick recap of January to the end of August:

* I was promoted to Supervisor of my Project Management Office at my work at the end of 2017. I am still feeling out my groove with that role. I am now managing 3 other project managers on top of working my assigned projects. I am also working on further developing our PMO, which includes performing performance reviews of my employees, developing training topics, and refreshing all of our templates. It is quite an undertaking.

* I have been working off and on on a new sweater pattern that I hope to finishing the sample knitting within the next month. I say month, because I work full time and I also take care of my family. I also have been working on gift knitting as well which takes time. I’m ready to bind off the bottom of the sweater and then I just need to work on the sleeves.

* Gift knitting, I have been working on holiday and baby gift knitting. I’ve knitted so many baby blankets I have the pattern memorized now! While I love knitting for little babies, I could use a break in the baby blanket knitting.

* I’ve invested in some Craftsy online classes for pattern design and writing. I also purchased a class for sizing (grading) my clothing patterns into the various sizes smaller and larger than my sample that I knit for myself. Once I make it through all of these classes I hope to write a review post of each one. I was very excited to find these classes to help expand my knitting skills.

* We took a family vacation to Colorado this summer and it was wonderfully relaxing. We had several days of relaxing at the cabin, adventuring in the mountains in the Jeep, and of course visiting yarn shops. Expect to see some new “Places You can Knit” pictures coming soon.

* I discovered Erin Condren Life Planners. I have long time been a planner girl, and always a paper planner. For the longest time I used various sizes of Filofax planners. Well, this year I discovered Erin Condren. I decided to give it a try, I was able to take advantage of a first time customer $10.00 discount. You guys, I am loving this planner! I’ll will make a separate post about the planner. (If you want to try an Erin Condren planner and are a first time customer you can use my referral link to get $10.00 off your first purchase on erincondren.com : https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/jessicaroberts1010/1

Now to present day, my daughter is starting first grade this year! I cannot hardly believe it! This mama is having a hard time with how fast my baby is growing up. We have all the school supplies purchased and labeled. We have organized her room (expect the closet still needs to be addressed) and set up a desk and computer for homework. We have meet the teacher this Thursday and then first day of school on Tuesday after Labor Day. Stay tuned for first day of school pictures.

Okay, so I am planning on making some minor changes to my website by adding some non-knitting content. I want to add reviews of products that I love (both knitting and non-knitting) and also include planning and organization type posts. Keep an eye out for those coming soon. I want to do better with my website by posting more regularly and expanding the topics that I talk about. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on topics you would like to see show up on my site please don’t hesitate to send me a note!